This puts the Thai cave rescue into perspective:

[catbyte]

Link to tweet

12 dehydrated, hungry boys breathing low oxygen in total darkness for 15 days and who don't even know how to swim are learning to scuba dive in the most treacherous cave in the world. That's like learning how to do advanced neurosurgery in a day. And succeeding.

[Recursion]

1. SCUBA school was the hardest 3 weeks of my entire military career

Hats off to these kids.

[joshcryer]

3. What makes it hard?

I'm not in any way trying to minimize this and I know it's a struggle to be in cold murkey water. But what is the challenge of it? Is it endurance? Is it harder to breath or what? Never scuba'd before.

[Blue_true]

6. I snorkeled before. It is unnatural to have something in the breathing ports of my body.

The tendency was to want to go back to totally relying on those ports, not the stuff on them.

One of the most difficult key skills to teach a swimmer is how to exhale with water around their nose and mouth, and draw in air with water lapping around the nose and mouth.

[Recursion]

8. What makes it hard is the entirely understandable instinct not to breathe when you are underwater

It sounds simple, but, I mean: it's really, really powerful in the moment. Terrifyingly so. And we were only in a well-lit swimming pool. These kids are in a jet-black cave.

[underpants]

10. I could imagine.

I've snorkeled off the Keys but never had to depend completely on something like that. Carrying the weight of the tank would probably be unnerving as well.

We did "drown proofing" in the Army in a pool. Using BDU pants to create a floatation device. Several of my fellow GIs couldn't understand why others were so nervous about this. I explained that they probably can't swim. They couldn't understand that people didn't know how to swim. My best buddy (who'd been a lifeguard in So. Cal - beaches I think) agreed to stay in the shallow end and see if anyone wanted the basics on swimming, floating, relaxing. No takers. The look of complete TERROR on their faces couldn't be missed. Several had to be ordered into the pool.

[mn9driver]

16. Stressed and inexperienced divers can use up their air very quickly.

I’ve seen people empty a tank in less than 15 minutes. This could be fatal if surfacing isn’t an option.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. I had one scuba lesson in a pool and then went on a dive around a reef in Hawaii

Supervised. One man in boat, one diver underwater, two neophytes. No more than 30 feet deep.

It was fabulous. I'd do it again in an instant.

I'm a decent swimmer, nothing special, tread water, lazily swim a couple hundred yards no difficulty. Had snorkeled a decade earlier. It was easy. Military training would be much more strenuous and detailed, but getting used to the breathing apparatus was a snap.

This does not minimize what the kids have done or are doing, because they are not skilled or strong swimmers, to begin with. But the tweet goes overboard; it is not brain surgery when people are swimming with you and the route is well mapped. No question it is scary and difficult. It is not like cave divers going in routes never explored before.

The number one thing is not to panic.

[Tipperary]

12. And CAVE diving is an entirely different thing.

I am a certified scuba diver, and years ago I used to cave. But I NEVER had any interest in cave diving. It is extremely hazardous, and divers have to be very well trained. Unfortunately, some scuba divers have been stupid in the past and ventured into caves without the training - they died.

[grantcart]

18. My father died taking a test after a six month course

He had a heart attack under the water. We found out later that it can be extremely stressful for people over 50 to start and they need to have a complete physical before doing it.

Regarding the trip out on this cave it seems that they were able to make a huge improvement in draining it so that the area where scuba was required was shorter than expected.

Many of the kids were not swimmers. Listening to the tape where the Thai Seals were applying first aid you could tell that the people they picked to go in had very good interaction with the kids.

[Sophia4]

2. It's wonderful. Now let's see Trump's team return to their parents the children they took

form their parents arms at our border.

Let's see if they can rescue those victims of monstrous inhumanity as quickly as the heroes have rescued the Thai children in the cave.

Why were the Thai children taken into the cave? Can the mistakes that put them in peril be avoided in the future?

Can the mistakes that put the refugee children in detention be avoided and remedied by our country?

I'm really, really happy that the Thai children are being rescued, but let's don't let the joy in their rescue distract us from the horrific separation of children from their parents without any reason that has occurred in our own country.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

14. This

Trump is taking bows for US support for the Thai government in this effort. I love that the Thai government is moving heaven and earth to reunite 12 boys with their parents. The US needs to take reuniting the ~3,000 kids they've separated from their parents that seriously.

[RandySF]

4. The rescuers are current and former Thai Navy SEALS.

[Blue_true]

7. There are lots of people there from other nations, including this one.

I read this morning that they were sending in teams of 13, with 4 being Thia Seals and the rest being international, groups were to position at different points in the multi-mile cave.

[former9thward]

17. No the majority of the divers are from other countries.

[lame54]

5. The world needs this...

Incredibly inspiring

But potentailly heartbreaking

[Blue_true]

9. I wish them well.

The Thia government should dynamite that cave shut once the rescue is done. It seems far too dangerous to count on people using judgement.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

15. More likely to put a locked prison-like gate over the entrance.

Blasting it closed may affect the ecosystem and researchers may need access as well. Caves breathe and that's a part of their ecology. Lots of wild caves in the US have gates because irresponsible people either getting trapped or hurt, or in numerous cases were damaging the cave.

The standing rule when I was a caver was to leave nothing behind and take nothing but photos.

..........

[Blue_true]

20. The approach you laid out would work. I think access definitely needs to be restricted though. nt

[KY_EnviroGuy]

21. There are hundreds in the US....

where landowners tire of damage irresponsible cavers were doing to land and fences. Most will still allow entry by experienced, responsible cavers.

Lots of the same placed on old abandoned mines out West as well......

[BobTheSubgenius]

13. I'm sure it's not easy for those kids, and they are definitely not going into this phrase

in the peak of condition, but it's not THAT hard. I've tried it, and it came easily to me. OTOH, I had years of lifeguard training and relatively still water doesn't bother me a bit.

After a day of training in neurosurgery, the only people I'd be willing to try out my new skill on would be Drumpf, and his family or Cabinet.

DEFINITELY not ready to try it out on human beings.

[tblue37]

19. Hyperbole. Obviously they haven't really learned scuba diving--just how to

breathe through the mask for a short while. And it is also hyperbole to call it the most dangerous cave system in the world.

Finally, what they have done is not even slightly like learning to perform neurosurgery.

[Renew Deal]

22. That's going to be an attraction for adventure travelers